UR133 - Gaijin A Go-Go - Coffee Beat
Gaijin A Go-Go – Coffee Beat
The best of the East meets the beats of the West with a sound that gets your booty shakin’. GAIJIN A GO-GO has the sound you never knew you were missing: infectious Japanese pop set to the electronic rhythms of go-go music.
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Band / Artist: Gaijin A Go-Go
Genre: Electronic/Dance/DJ / Pop
Song: Coffee Beat
Website: www.gaijin55.com
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Notes:
Biography
Greetings from the Far East…River, Brooklyn, New York. Over the bridge and through groovy woods to the home of GAIJIN A GO-GO. Feels a bit foreign at first…and it is. “Gaijin” is the Japanese word for “foreign barbarian.” And “go” means the number five. Five -five, get it?The best of the East meets the beats of the West with a sound that gets your booty shakin’. Coming from a city where it’s normal for different cultures to electrify one another, GAIJIN A GO-GO are a high-voltage short circuit. It’s the sound you never knew you were missing: infectious Japanese pop set to the rhythms of 1960s-style go-go music. A visual Hullabaloo lost in translation! Modzilla lead singer Kiku, with platinum hair and graceful 6′1″ figure, recalls an anime drawing come to life. She leads her army of nine musicians: two female back-up singers, a full-horn and percussion section, guitar, bass and organ, all clad in original costumes of her own design.
Formed in late-1999, GAIJIN A GO-GO self-released their debut EP Hello Copycat, which quickly got them signed to Sony Music International. Under that label they released two full-length albums, Happy-55-Lucky and Merry-55-Round, which features remixes of their songs by Konishi from Pizzicato 5, King Britt and Eighteenth Street Lounge Music’s Ursula 1000. Konishi also asked the band to contribute a remake of the Astro Boy anime theme song for his Atom Is Born compilation on Toshiba. Their latest album, Go-Go Boot Camp, premiered as part of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Cherry Blossom Festival 2006. Their cheer song for Japanese-born baseball star Hideki Matsui, “Go-Go #55,” is played regularly when he’s up to bat at Yankee Stadium. Non-foreigners to the telly screen, GAIJIN A GO-GO have appeared on the high-rated Itomo and Mesamashi programs, as well as Space Shower Video Music Channel for Japanese audiences. In 2007, they appeared in the independent film Stanley Cuba, a comedy based on the life of Stanley Kubrick. In 2008, the band took a turn towards the dance clubs through the use of electronic rhythms programmed on a Macintosh.
Live shows have included opening for Puffy Ami Yumi at Irving Plaza in New York, the 930 Club in Washington DC, and the Paradise in Boston. In NYC, they’ve played dozens of venues, including numerous all-night warehouse happenings, private parties and civic events.
GAIJIN A GO-GO: the Kobe beef of go-go music, the fatty tuna of international pop, the Chrysanthemum Throne of stage shows, the glitter box of Hello Kitty… With a wink and prayer always sending the message to Let The Rising Sun Shine In!
Instrumentation
Kiku Kimonolisa - lead vocals
Wink Lady: Cindy & Cindy - back up vocals and flute
Saiko Mikan - bass guitar
Ryuichi Sakagogo - programs & sequences
Zen Stefani - organ
Gamera Obscura - live percussion
Lick Shakuhachi - trumpetDiscography
“Hello Copycat” - Skebe Music EP, 2001
“Happy-55-Lucky” - Sony Music International album, 2003
“Merry-55-Round” - Sony Music International album, 2003
“Atom Is Born” - two remixes of the Astro Boy anime theme produced by Yasuharu Konishi of Pizzicato 5, 2003
“Wild Sanzanami Beat Vol. 2″ - previously unreleased song on Japan’s Sanzanami Records compilation album, 2004
“Ursaldelica” - US debut of Ursula 1000’s remix of Tempura Mental released on Eighteenth Street Lounge (ESL) Records, 2005
“Go-Go Boot Camp” - Skebe Music album, 2006
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